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Deafinitely Dope with Matt Maxey

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If you’re on Facebook often, you may have noticed a video from NowThis on your news feed.

The video features Matt Maxey, a Deaf man who makes music performance videos in ASL. The video now has over 1.2 million views.

Now, Maxey has launched a GoFundMe account for his business “Deafinitely Dope”. He is trying to raise $32,000. He hopes to bring more people of all ages together with a love for ASL and music. The funds raised will go towards merchandise, equipment for videos, a website, and travel expenses for speaking opportunities.

DTV got in touch with Maxey and asked him a few questions about what goes into the signing process and more about “Deafinitely Dope”.

"How does it feel to be able to sign to music?

MATT:

Honestly, it feels like a puzzle, it feels like a challenge. That challenge I enjoy being able to provide an ASL description for my deaf friends to help them understand the lyrics that normally goes over their heads and I also enjoy providing ASL lyrics for hearing friends and help them become more fascinated with ASL and want to learn more in the process. It feels like with every song I break down, translate, and sign, it brings both worlds together and that leads to more cooperation and unity through music.

That leads me to Deafinitely Dope. What I'm trying to do here at Deafinitely dope is set up a business where we can provide motivational speaking for people of all ages from elementary, middle school, high school, colleges, universities, older people and all of the above, but at the same time I want to provide merchandise, a brand that everyone can feel united under. I feel like that's missing for a lot of people, we have the younger generation taken care of older generation take care of, but the middle generation has nothing for them. Nobody is taking care of that unique hard of hearing person, unique Coda, special people that struggle with ASL but are still deaf and struggle to find their identity and end up finding themselves through music. So, with all of that involved, Deafinitely dope wants to provide lyrics videos, tutorials, different ways to help people become more fascinated with ASL in different ways they've never seen before. That's part of our challenge, our pleasure, and our goal in trying to bring worlds together and break barriers in the process.”